Milwaukee Common Council passes ordinance effecting new smoke and vape shops

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It may be harder to find nicotine products in Milwaukee in the future, according to Milwaukee Common Council members. They unanimously passed a new ordinance that could limit where new vape and smoke shops can be in Milwaukee.

"We know that we have vape companies who are targeting our youth," said District 3 Alderman Jonathan Brostoff.

He says this ordinance prevents new vape and smoke shops within 500 feet of one another and prevent them from opening within 1,000 feet of a school.

Alderman Brostoff says the goal of everyone who supported this bill behind the scenes is to improve public health and protect young people.

"We know that just the prevalence of tobacco retailers in our community encourages new people to start smoking, young people, teenagers, and makes it harder for folks who want to quit to do that," said Molly Collins, with the Wisconsin chapter of the American Lung Assocation.

Molly Collins, with the Wisconsin chapter of the American Lung Association, says all tobacco products cost Wisconsin nearly $5 billion in healthcare and lost productivity a year, and is still a leading cause of death.

She says as smoke and vape shops close, or try to relocate, the hope is that there may be fewer clusters of shops so close together.

"We're really excited, we think this is an important win for public health," said Collins.

Workers at vape and smoke shops, like Victor Reid from Famous Smokeshop off Brady Street, say for one thing, they aren't trying to "market" anything to children.

"We're pretty safe with how we sell our products and everything like that, you know, we check ID's," explained Reid.

Reid says this could make things difficult for them in the future however, as they are close to a school.

Nicotine users like Jackson Bishop say, with the prevalence of nicotine and tobacco products at nearly every gas station, and many other stores, it's extremely easy to get nicotine for someone who wants it. He says he doubts longterm that something like this new ordinance would change the calculus for most users.

"Especially when it comes to nicotine, they're gonna find that plan B outlet, if plan A shuts down, plan B has gotta come up, that's just how I see it," said Bishop.